RE: Model Railway Signal Controller

mcb1 — Fri, 03 Nov 2017 10:26:02 GMT

I suspect your limit for all of these will be the number of I/O.

The speed and control is not the issue, but polling the inputs to see the state, and then set the state seems to be.

You might wish to consider each point and signal as a node, and make it self contained.

There are various bus systems that could be used to communicate to the node and then get the state as well as setting the signal state.

This would make it expandable and then the uP just needs to be able to link the sensor to whatever point it has ahead of it.

The data could also be passed out and then a simple webpage to display the status.

Mark

RE: Model Railway Signal Controller

michaelkellett — Thu, 02 Nov 2017 10:39:49 GMT

If I were doing it I would use small micro controller (possibly Arduino would do but it has a lot of stuff you don't need - but they are cheap and common). It would be nice to allow for some simple communications system where you can connect lots of controllers on daisy chain or loop and control or monitor them from a central point.

If you are willing to work at chip level I would suggest an ARM M0 based processor in a hand solderable package - perhaps STM32f051k4T6, Farnell 233346 at £1.03 each. These have proper on chip debug, 16k of flash, all the usual stuff and pin compatible parts with more memory if you need them. Its in a 32 pin TQFP package.

How do you detect the trains ?